InNa the tabletáboa, whencando as [[obstruentconsoante obstruínte|obstruíntes]]s (stopsoclusivas, affricates,africadas ande fricativesfricativas) appearaparecen inen pairsparellas, such ascomo /p b/, {{IPA|/tʃ dʒ/}},ande {{IPA|/s z/}}, thea firstprimeira isé [[fortisforte ande lenis|fortis]]a (strong)segunda andé thefeble. second is lenis (weak).As Fortisobstruíntes obstruentsfortes, such ascomo /p tʃ s/ arepronúncianse pronouncedcon withmáis moretensión muscular tensione andforza breathdo forcealento thanque lenisas consonantsfebles, suchcomo as {{IPA|/b dʒ z/}}, ande areson alwayssempre [[voicelessness|voiceless]]xordas. Lenis consonants are partly [[voice (phonetics)|voiced]] at the beginning and end of utterances, and fully voiced between vowels. Fortis stops such as {{IPA|/p/}} have additional articulatory or acoustic features in most dialects: they are [[aspirated consonant|aspirated]] {{IPA|[pʰ]}} when they occur alone at the beginning of a stressed syllable, often unaspirated in other cases, and often unreleased {{IPA|[p̚ ]}} or pre-glottalised {{IPA|[ˀp]}} at the end of a syllable. In a single-syllable word, a vowel before a fortis stop is shortened: thus ''nip'' has a noticeably shorter vowel (phonetically, but not phonemically) than ''nib'' {{IPA|[nɪˑp̬]}} ([[#Vowels|see below]]).{{sfn|Collins|Mees|2003|pages=47–53}}
